Red meat exports slump, thanks to China
Weaker pricing and demand from China continue to impact New Zealand red meat export earnings.
ORGANISERS OF the annual Red Meat Sector Conference are hoping for increased farmer attendance.
The conference will be held in Auckland on July 8 and is jointly organised by the Meat Industry Association and Beef + Lamb NZ.
With the newly formed Meat Industry Excellence (MIE) pushing for merging co-ops, Silver Fern Farms and Alliance in a bid to lift returns, organisers hope more farmers will attend.
Meat Industry Association chief executive Tim Ritchie says the proposed merger of meat co-ops will not be "a specific presentation topic" at the conference.
"I am not aware whether anyone from MIE will attend, but registrations have only just opened," he told Rural News.
"We would of course welcome increasing farmer attendance at the conference and together with Beef + Lamb we will be promoting that in the month ahead."
The conference programme will again be centred on presentations relevant to the three key themes of the Red Meat Sector Strategy, released two years ago: coordinated in-market behaviour, efficient and aligned procurement and sector best practice.
Visiting and New Zealand speakers will take part. They include UK meat sector consultant Richard Brown, ANZ rural economist Con Williams, Sealord chief executive Graham Stuart and food marketing expert Professor David Hughes.
On MIE'S push for a mega meat processor, Ritchie says the MIA doesn't have a position on any structural change in the sector. "That is essentially a proprietary matter for our members and their shareholder," he says.
The MIA is a voluntary trade association of processors, marketers and exporters.
For the year ending June 2012, the meat industry earned export revenue of $6.1 billion.
MIA member companies operate 60 processing plants, slaughtering and processing 19 million lambs, 4.3 million sheep and 3.9 million cattle and calves each year.
South Waikato farm manager Ben Purua’s amazing transformation from gang life to milking cows was rewarded with the Ahuwhenua Young Maori Farmer award last night.
Bankers have been making record profits in the last few years, but those aren’t the only records they’ve been breaking, says Federated Farmers vice president Richard McIntyre.
The 2023-24 season has been a roller coaster ride for Waikato dairy farmers, according to Federated Farmers dairy section chair, Mathew Zonderop.
Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) director general Ray Smith says job cuts announced this morning will not impact the way the Ministry is organised or merge business units.
Scales Corporation is acquiring a number of orchard assets from Bostock Group.
Family and solidarity shone through at the 75 years of Ferdon sale in Otorohanga last month.
OPINION: This old mutt well remembers the wailing, whining and gnashing of teeth by former West Coast MP and Labour…
OPINION: Your canine crusader gets a little fed up with the some in media, union hacks, opposition politicians and hard-core…